A cheerleading instructor, Guo Hong's looks caught the interest of many netizens. (Photo : Shanghaiist)
There is a present growing lack of physical education (PE) teachers in the country.
Schools are receiving few applicants for the position of a PE teacher. The country has many sports education graduates, but only some would opt to work in the academe, reported Shanghai Daily.
On Oct. 25, 480 schools took part in a job fair for teachers in Shanghai. Most of the schools were looking for PE teachers.
Yu Yimin, the principal of Shanghai Hami Primary School, told Shanghai Daily that “the complicated nature of work and low pay” makes the teaching profession “not appealing” to sports education graduates.
Yu said that education authorities adopted policies that now require schools to go beyond “general exercises” and offer “more specialized education.” He further said that most sports education graduates either work in a private company or venture into business.
Shi Jie, who holds a degree in aerobics from the Shanghai University of Sport, said that PE teachers get low salary. Shi said that PE teachers are also “less respected” compared to faculty members teaching English, Math and Chinese.
Schools in the districts of Baoshan, Fengxian, Jiading and Qingpu now offer housing subsidies amounting to 2,000 yuan to PE teachers.
A PE instructor at Zhejiang University caught the attention of netizens basically for her looks. Many online news sites featured her in March.
Guo Hong, a former aerobics and cheerleading national champion, was handling cheerleading classes at a Hangzhou-based national university at the time she got noticed by the media.
One student named Jiang said that he found the cheerleading course “very interesting” and the songs picked by Guo as “nice,” reported Mail Online.
Xu Qianhao, a pharmacy major, perceived the course as “a fresh challenge” and the lessons “exciting and demanding.”
